Leaving No Tree Uncounted - Salisbury Completes Tree Canopy Report

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The Tree Canopy Assessment was a 50/50 match grant from the NC Forest Service and the NC Urban Forest Council. The total assessment was $13,402.16, and Salisbury was awarded $6,701.08. The report determined that the City of Salisbury is approximately 14,721 acres with a tree canopy covering 6,625 acres (45%). Since 2014, the City has gained 1% of canopy coverage or 152 acres.

This report also went into detail pertaining to our tree canopy cover of our parks and neighborhoods. There is an average canopy cover of 44% over all of Salisbury’s Parks. 40% of the combined parks area was deemed suitable for possible planting. When looking at Salisbury’s 82 neighborhoods, 36 of them had a decrease in canopy cover, while 30 had an increase in canopy cover. The remaining neighborhoods stayed relatively stable.

The ecosystem benefits calculated from this study are:

• Air Quality;
  $853,855.00 (493,499 lbs. of pollution removed annually).
• Stormwater Reduction;
  $485,869.00 (54 million gallons of runoff prevented annually).
• Carbon Sequestration:
  $2,125,240.00 (12,461 tons of carbon sequestered annually).
• Carbon Storage:
  $42,302,210.00 (248,033 tons of carbon stored in the urban forest).
• $3,464,964 Annual Benefits
  (Air Quality, Stormwater and Carbon Sequestration).
• $45,767,173 Total Benefits
  (Total Annual Benefits Plus Stored Carbon).

• 23 February 2024
• Author: Tree Board
• Number of views: 76322
• Comments: 0